The frame honors the acheiropoieta, "not made by human hands," icon of Christ. The narratives on the doors tell its history from Christ’s leaving his image on the cloth with which he wiped his face on his way to Calvary through the cloth’s role as the protector of the kingdom of Edessa (in modern Turkey) and then its transfer to the Byzantine imperial capital in 944. In 1380 Muscovite armies, following the image on a battle standard, defeated the Mongols at the famous battle of Kulikovo. This elegant later work demonstrates the icon’s continuing importance to the Muscovite court.

These three picture frames are part of a gift to the Museum of twenty-four frames made in the Moscow and Saint Petersburg workshops of the famous House of Carl Fabergé by the several brilliant and talented jewelers the firm attracted in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. The divergent framing devices for the then-popular medium of presentation portrait photography were among the firm’s most sought-after creations, and this group of frames covers nearly the entire spectrum of techniques, materials, and imaginative shapes Fabergé offered his affluent clientele. As the Romanov dynasty’s favorite artisan, Fabergé made objects that accompanied members of the Russian high aristocracy from cradle to grave. Besides the fanciful examples illustrated here, two of which are decorated with the group includes frames of a highly personal character that use Russian native materials such as semiprecious stones from the Ural Mountains and local woods, all embellished with silver and gold. Many of the frames in this outstanding collection have been exhibited around the world to document the international éclat of the House of Fabergé, which ceased to exist soon after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917.

The central scene of the Lamentation of Christ is bordered by a series of saints in roundels, with a particular focus on saints of the Moscow region, including four Metropolitans of Moscow and the important monastic leaders Sergius and Cyril. Also notable is the depiction in the left border of the sainted Tsarevich Dmitri Ivanovich, whose cult flourished following the transfer of his remains to Moscow in 1606.

1801 / 1850, Moscow